A Casebook of Curious Cases

About the Book

"Fact is stranger than fiction" is a common American maxim. It ought to be true as it has been repeated innumerable times for at least six generations. As with so many things written down, Adam Dumphy does not agree. He feels that if this is true writers of fiction should be ashamed. They are not doing their job. Adam much prefers Mark Twain's "First get the facts then you can scramble them any way you like." Mark was probably talking about politics but it could be applied to writers also. Best of all Adam prefers a scramble of fact by fiction. That is what he does. And after thirty years of medical practice he is certain there are many "facts" not true and much "fiction" learned subsequently to be fact. In his medical practice his motto was "Primum non nocere." (Firstly do no harm.) He still believes that. And after all what is the harm in writing something that is not widely read if it might cheer up at least a few someones who do read. Logan Pearsoll Smith once wrote "A best seller is a gilded temple of mediocrity." He likes that. Here is Adam's latest harmless presentation. Ishi Revisited, Remains Tell the Story of a Recluse, a Phoenician Goddess in Modern California, A Look at that Awful Drug Scene, A Genuine Custer Survivor, Amelia Earhart returned, Shambu and his Friends Perform, Polka Dot Teeth are Revealing, the Clarence Pendelton Tremor explained, A Genuine Forgery or was it? Curious cases all. And each solved for the reader in this offering.

About the Author

Adam Dumphy is known as Uncle Grumpy to an assorted and exotic group of nephews, nieces, and cousins, relatives near and far, numerous in-laws, probably a few out-laws and a few friends. And it is for a reason. He husbands his cheerful for the days when he writes. And for a good reason. The reason has to do with the concept of creative writing. Creativity is a subject much nattered about in those who spend most of their time scribbling. In fact he has argued bitterly with three writing courses and six writing instructors about this He belongs to the school that feels that biographies, histories, and textbooks generally, self help, economics and scientific books etc, are not creative writing. The author of such tomes simply repeats something he has read and repeats it and others in a longer form. True creativity must be something made out of whole cloth. Locations, persons and events that have origin totally in the writer's mind and which he transmits into the written word. Writers do not write to be disliked. They write to be admired. How can one be admired who transcribes violence, mayhem and overly detailed sex into print? Why leave the reader depressed and gloomy or with the shakes? How much better it is to give the reader a laugh, a smile, a lift. That is what he tries to do.